The Financial Times reporter noted that in the first quarter of this year, the policy support around the pension finance was significantly increased, and the "finance + pension" entered the fast lane of development.
On March 25, the Henan Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision issued the "Action Plan for Accelerating the High-quality Development of Ageing Finance in Henan's Banking and Insurance Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"), becoming the first province in the country to publicly release the pension finance plan.
On April 7, the Fujian Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Ageing Finance" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"), introducing 21 measures to promote the high-quality development of ageing finance.
Previously, the Guangxi Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and the Ningbo Supervision Bureau launched a package of implementation measures for the development of pension finance, and promoted the insurance industry to do a good job in pension finance.
Many places have set long-term and short-term goals for pension finance
Henan is a province with a large population and an aging population. According to statistics, by the end of 2023, there are nearly 19 million people over the age of 60 in Henan Province, and they have entered a moderately aging society. In the "Action Plan", the Henan Supervision Bureau put forward 29 specific measures for the development of pension finance in the province from 5 aspects.
By the end of 2026, all kinds of ageing financial products, ageing financial services, and the financial system of the ageing industry will be basically perfect, the development model will gradually mature, and the business scale will increase year by year;By the end of 2028, the closed-loop ecological construction of the whole chain of "ageing finance + health care services" has achieved remarkable results, and a number of innovative pilots, The business model has formed a brand effect in the country, and pension finance has become an important force to improve the level of residents' pension security, a financial steward of the people's pension life and pension consumption, and an efficient engine to promote the high-quality development of the silver economy and the pension industry.
In the "Guiding Opinions", the Fujian Supervision Bureau determined the three major work priorities of promoting the construction of the three-pillar pension insurance system, strengthening the financial support for the development of the pension industry, and improving the "age-friendly" financial consumption environment, and clarified the four working principles of "people-oriented, problem-oriented, overall planning, diversified promotion, adapting measures to local conditions, reform and innovation, strengthening guidance, and risk prevention and control", formulating short-term goals and long-term plans, and putting forward long-term requirements for the high-quality development of the province's pension finance.
Specifically, in the short term, it is necessary to achieve a plan for work development, a mechanism for work operation, a system for work monitoring, a breakthrough in work shortcomings, and an improvement in the development environment. The long-term goals include the improvement of the working mechanism of the pension finance, the significant improvement of the service capacity of the three major sectors of the pension finance, the coordinated development of finance and the pension industry and the pension industry to be more stable, the informatization and digitization of the pension financial supervision and the level of digitalization to further improve, and the people's satisfaction with the pension finance work has increased significantly.
The Ningbo Regulatory Bureau is also actively promoting the development of financial support for pension service institutions. On March 7, the Ningbo Supervision Bureau, together with the Ningbo Civil Affairs Bureau and the Ningbo Municipal Finance Bureau, took the lead in introducing the implementation plan for the guarantee loan business of pension service institutions in the country, through the introduction of financing guarantee institutions and the improvement of the risk sharing mechanism, to promote the precise docking of banking institutions, enrich products, better support the development of pension service institutions, and urge banks to complete all visits and docking. In accordance with the principle of priority of basic opening banks, the bureau will push the list of the first batch of pension institutions under its jurisdiction to banking institutions through online channels "one-to-one", and guide banks to customize "pension insurance" financial service plans, give full play to the role of financing guarantee credit enhancement and risk sharing, and solve the problem of light assets and lack of mortgage in people's pension institutions.
Develop the "three pillars" of old-age security
As an important measure for the development of pension finance, the personal pension system has achieved positive results since its official launch in November 2022. This year's "Government Work Report" clearly pointed out that the personal pension system will be implemented in the country and the third pillar of pension insurance will be actively developed.
So, how to further encourage banking and insurance institutions to vigorously promote the development of the personal pension system?
In this regard, the Fujian Regulatory Bureau proposed in the "Guiding Opinions" that the personal pension opening bank should enrich the supply of different types of personal pension products, carry out consumer "portraits" in combination with the sales suitability management requirements, provide differentiated personal pension products according to the risk appetite and life cycle of the participants, and strictly implement the provisions of "integration of newspapers and banks" to reasonably reduce the agency fee rate. Encourage pilot banks and insurance companies to optimize the mechanism around the pre-sale, sale, and after-sale links of personal pensions, give special identification to individual pension fund accounts or design hesitation periods for personal pension account deposits, provide investment advisory services for participants, strengthen the study of the default investment product portfolio system, revitalize the "precipitated" funds that have been deposited and not invested, and stimulate participants' willingness to continue to pay.
Henan Supervision Bureau in the "Action Plan" proposed to make a fuss and work pension financial products. Henan Province will accelerate the development of personal pensions, the development of the third pillar of commercial pension insurance, support the innovation of pension financial management and pension deposits, the development of exclusive financial products for the elderly, and the construction of the three pillars of service pension security, not only to meet the diversified, differentiated and personalized pension financial needs of the elderly, but also to assist the majority of young and middle-aged groups in the pre-old stage, through the pension finance as soon as possible to prepare for the old reserves.
Give full play to the advantages of insurance capital to support the development of the pension industry
As "long-term capital" and "patient capital", insurance funds have the characteristics of large scale, long cycle and high stability, which are naturally suitable for long-term investment in the pension industry. Many places have mentioned that the insurance industry will be promoted to provide long-term financial support for the growth of the pension service system.
For example, the Fujian Supervision Bureau proposed to continue to promote the work of "insurance capital into Fujian", and guide insurance funds to increase investment in medical, health, nursing care, institutional pension and other pension-related fields in Fujian Province through self-built pension communities, leasing properties, entrusted management, equity investment, etc. At the same time, actively communicate and coordinate with local governments to provide policy support in terms of land, water, electricity, employment, taxation and other aspects of pension service projects supported by insurance funds.
The Henan Supervision Bureau proposed that in the financial aspects of the pension industry, it will make overall plans to make good use of special re-loans, commercial loans, insurance funds and other tools for inclusive pension, increase support for the upstream and downstream of the silver economic industry chain, open up financing channels, reduce financing costs, and help cultivate various new industries and new formats such as equipment for the elderly and smart pension, so that the masses can enjoy a more convenient and high-quality pension life.
The Guangxi Regulatory Bureau said that it will vigorously promote banking and insurance institutions to participate in the construction of the medical and elderly care service industry in various forms to help the development of the "silver economy". Relying on the natural connection between the insurance industry and the medical care service industry, it focuses on assisting the government to introduce four medical and elderly care community projects, including Taikang Home "Guiyuan", Qianhai Life "Happy Home" and United Life Insurance "Hezhong Younian", to settle in Nanning, which has been put into operation, providing 4,210 beds for the society and a total investment of more than 7.3 billion yuan in insurance funds, effectively realizing the integrated development of the "medical care + insurance" industry. At the same time, insurance institutions should be guided to adopt the "insurance + service" model, and cooperate with the government, communities and real estate developers to carry out age-appropriate renovation of the homes of the elderly, and provide home care services such as care for the elderly.
Source: Financial Times client
Reporter: Sun Rong
Editor: Yang Jingyi
Email: [email protected]